Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday revoked the eligibility of fathers studying full-time in yeshiva for child care subsidies, enraging ultra-Orthodox political leaders.
In order to be eligible for such subsidies, fathers will need to work or study in a nonreligious educational institute for at least 24 hours a week, something that would preclude full-time yeshiva study.
United Torah Judaism leader Moshe Gafni called Liberman “an evil man” for the policy change, while Shas chairman Arye Deri described the decision as “destructive and wicked.”
Liberman said the changes were designed to prioritize “those who work and pay taxes.”
The ministry has long provided childcare subsidies for the young children of women studying in institutions of higher education or who are in employment, in order to encourage them to join the workforce.
The subsidies were however not conditional on the employment, or lack thereof, of the spouses of such women, meaning that families in which the father was a full-time yeshiva student could also obtain the subsidy.
The subsidies amount to between NIS 900 and NIS 1,300 per child, and in total around 130,000 families benefit from the subsidies every year, with the Labor and Welfare Ministry spending some NIS 1.2 billion on these benefits, approximately a third of which went to ultra-Orthodox families.
Liberman has argued, however, that the subsidies were originally designed to encourage women, as well as men, to participate in the workforce, not to subsidize full-time yeshiva study by men.
At the beginning of 2020, around 53% of ultra-Orthodox men were employed, compared to more than 85% of non-ultra-Orthodox men.
The subsidies comprise a significant portion of an ultra-Orthodox family’s household income, and canceling them will cause immediate financial problems for such families.
Liberman hopes that the cancellation of these subsidies will push ultra-Orthodox men to find employment.
The changes go into effect at the beginning of the coming school year.
“This decision is an important step which will change the state’s priorities, and put at the top of those priorities those who work and pay taxes,” said Liberman.
“The current mechanism [of subsidies] harms working parents and gives preference to those who do not work, and therefore change is needed,” he continued, saying he would “continue to advance steps that will abolish disincentives to integrating into the workforce.”
אני מתחבר לשותפיי בקואליציה, אכן "יש מה ללבן", לילדים צריך להעניק "מה שהם צריכים" - השכלה ויכולת להשתלב בשוק התעסוקה, להתפרנס בכבוד ולא להתבסס על קצבאות ונדבות.
— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) July 8, 2021
Gafni said Liberman’s decision would “cause great financial harm” to ultra-Orthodox families,” and criticized Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who promised the community that it would “not be harmed” by his government.
Deri slammed it as “the first decision of the finance minister is to harm the ultra-Orthodox. Liberman, in a destructive and wicked step, decided to harm families with large numbers of children just because they are haredi. Bennett and Saar who promise to take care of the ultra-Orthodox have established a government of hatred which has raised the banner of harming the Torah world.”